Friday, June 24, 2005

Illusions of Benevolence

If author Emmanuel Todd in After the Empire, and Crimes of War (1971) editors Richard A. Falk, Robert Jay Lifton, and Gabriel Kolko were right, the theatrical militarism we are witnessing is the inevitable conclusion--or "final glory"--of US dominance. An unavoidable consequence of collective psychic trauma and delusion fostered by prior atrocities, violently defended illusions of benevolence, and an inability to come to terms with either defeat or loss of status.

Other nation-states have endured such reversals and broken this lethal cycle of vengeance. Perhaps we will, too.